Planning on doing a fresh install, drive questions

[Bugal Jackson]

I have 3 drives on my computer, an OS SSD, storage HDD and another SSD for other things. I already backed up everything I need to do. But when I do a fresh install, will it format the other two drives as well or will I have to do it manually?

 

[boju]

Could probably use Windows 10's install process to format your other drives / delete partitions or format afterwards. But before installing Win10 on the designated drive, disconnect the other two. Windows 10 can put boot records on other drives, a process that can't be helped. If you were to have all three drives connected and removed one of them for whatever reason in future, Windows may fail to boot until you return the drive to the same port it was connected to.

Thought to let you know and be aware what can happen.

 

[Bugal Jackson]

Could probably use Windows 10's install process to format your other drives / delete partitions or format afterwards. But before installing Win10 on the designated drive, disconnect the other two. Windows 10 can put boot records on other drives, a process that can't be helped. If you were to have all three drives connected and removed one of them for whatever reason in future, Windows may fail to boot until you return the drive to the same port it was connected to.

Thought to let you know and be aware what can happen.

That's great to know, thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

Disconnect the other two drives during the OS install.
Reconnect them later, and you can then delete whatever partitions or data that is on them.

How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

 

[Bugal Jackson]

Actually I just realized a fatal mistake potentially. I had already upgraded my windows 8.1 to 10 a couple days ago, just an upgrade not fresh install. I had left my drives in during this. Am I already affected?

 

[USAFRet]

Actually I just realized a fatal mistake potentially. I had already upgraded my windows 8.1 to 10 a couple days ago, just an upgrade not fresh install. I had left my drives in during this. Am I already affected?

Test this.

Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the OS drive.
Power up.
Does it boot properly?

 

[Bugal Jackson]

Yup, unplugged all other drives and my blu ray drive, I was able to get in just fine.

 

[USAFRet]

Yup, unplugged all other drives and my blu ray drive, I was able to get in just fine.

Then a clean install is no problem.

Disconnect the other drives, and...
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10